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Investors cashed out of Virgin Money after a gloomy broker note predicted tough times ahead when one of its key funding sources comes to an end.

As one of the keenest users of cheap Government funding, the Newcastle lender will face pressure on its margins once the £108billion Term Funding scheme ends this month, according to broker RBC Capital Partners.

Virgin Money's shares plunged 4.1 per cent, or 11.3p, to 259.3p after RBC slashed its rating from 'outperform' to 'underperform'.

Broker Berenberg said the firm has the potential to grow 'multiples of its current size' and predicted double-digit revenue growth in the coming years. Shares rose 5.7 per cent, or 120p, to 2235p.

Meanwhile, shares in drugs giant Shire limped lower even though it had announced a near twelvefold increase in profits to £3.1billion.

Shire said its product sales jumped by nearly a third to £10.3billion in 2017 while it also hailed the impact Donald Trump's tax cuts had had on the firm.

But it also warned that copycat drugs from rivals would dent profits this year. That was clearly difficult medicine for investors to swallow as its share price fell 1.43 per cent, or 45.5p, to 3135.5p.

Investors took a shine to gold miner Randgold Resources despite the growing threat of increased taxes in the Democratic Republic of Congo, a key region.

The firm said it would fight the new mining code if it were to come into place. Shares soared 4.9 per cent, or 296p, to 6386p.

Keystone Law Group shares jumped after it hinted at a bumper profits announcement.

In a pre-close trading update, the challenger law firm, which floated in November, said it expects to report profits comfortably ahead of current market expectation when it releases its maiden results on April 25.

It caused the firm's shares to rise 2.4 per cent, or 6p, to 253p.

News that Sirius Minerals had switched to a new contractor so it could bring forward the construction of its fertiliser mine in Yorkshire caused shares to blossom.

FTSE 250 firm Sirius said it had signed a deal with Canadian firm DMC Mining Services to drill two shafts to extract a vital mineral called polyhalite.

It means Sirius could start mining six months early, by May 2021. Shares rose 3.8 per cent, or 0.84p, to 23p.

Shares in tool firm HSS Hire Group rose 5.2 per cent, or 1.25p, to 25.5p after it claimed it had maintained 'solid momentum'.

Countrywide investors took another hammering after warnings over the future of estate agents. Industry analysts issued fresh warnings that traditional agents would need to slash costs – and even merge – to compete with low-cost online rivals.

Investors are still reeling from the profit warning Countrywide issued last month. The fresh blow caused its shares to drop 5.5 per cent, or 4.6p, to 78.4p. Arch-rival Foxtons, however, saw its shares finish up 5 per cent, or 3.6p, at 76p.